social media background check Archives

Employees’ Rights & Social Media

Employees and social media have been a sore spot for employers over the years. Back in the early years of social media, many employers were concerned about the amount of time employees spent in social media during an average work day. Their concerns centered around productivity, rather than what the employees were posting about.

Fast forward to 2020, and we have an entirely new set of problems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, essential worker’s were posting all over social media about their work conditions and at that time lack of PPE. Everyone knows that if you want to get your concerns noticed, turn to social media. It has become one of the most effective ways in which to communicate today on a large scale. If you are lucky, you will be picked up by the news media and your story will become national news.

Social Media and The Whistle Blower

Erin Marie Olszewski is a Nurse-turned-investigative journalist, who has spent the last few months on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, on the inside in two radically different settings. Two hospitals. One private, the other public. One in Florida, the other in New York.

As you can imagine, if you know her story, she has been scrutinized in the media. Some applaud her courage while others try to rip apart her story. So we wondered, who is Erin Olszewski and what does her social media story look like?

We conducted a deep web scan on Erin. Surprisingly, some of her prior “life” was still up for anyone to discover. The deep web scan revealed, as they many times they do, a story of who Erin is and what she has been involved with leading up to her fame.

You can view her entire deep web scan here. (Erin Olszewski) Taking a look at an employee’s online, publicly available, social media content, provides a story board of the person’s life to date. It can reveal a lot about a person, good and bad. In Erin’s case, one is left with the impression that she can be a bit of a rebel rouser. It also shows however, that she is also someone who stands up for what she believes in and isn’t afraid of the consequences.

Can an Employee Get Fired?

This is the new million dollar question. The short answer is, it depends. We did a little research and found the following as a place to start.

Some states and localities may have different laws or additional laws.
Federal Laws: First Amendment: Free Speech. Doesn’t state that employees or individuals can say whatever they want wherever they want without consequence.
According to the National Labor Relations Act: An employee’s comments on social media are generally not protected if they are mere gripes not made in relation to group activity among employees.

NLRA Board Decisions

In the fall of 2012, the Board began to issue decisions in cases involving discipline for social media postings. Board decisions are significant because they establish precedent in novel cases such as these.

*In the first such decision, issued on September 28, 2012, the Board found that the firing of a BMW salesman for photos and comments posted to his Facebook page did not violate federal labor law. The question came down to whether the salesman was fired exclusively for posting photos of an embarrassing accident at an adjacent Land Rover dealership, which did not involve fellow employees, or for posting mocking comments and photos with co-workers about serving hot dogs at a luxury BMW car event. Both sets of photos were posted to Facebook on the same day; a week later, the salesman was fired. The Board agreed with the Administrative Law Judge that the salesman was fired solely for the photos he posted of a Land Rover incident, which was not concerted activity and so was not protected.

*National Labor Relations Act’s website.

In the end, companies of all sizes should have a written social media policy in place. As an added precaution, lawyers have advised social media to be added to any anti- harassment policy as well.

If you are lucky, you will go viral, get picked up by a news outlet, and your story will become national news. Just like what happened with Erin Marie Olszewski.

If it Can Happen to Amazon, it Can Happen To You

Social Media: The Industry Disrupter

Social media continues to be a major business disrupter. For the last decade most companies and brands have been working like crazy to figure it all out. From social media marketing to social hiring reports. How does it all work?

Which platform should we use to market? What is the ROI? How can we keep track of our online reputation? The waters get murky when it comes to hiring employees and screening their social accounts. Yet, so many HR professionals continue to conduct unethical searches and find themselves in compromising situations. Should we screen employees social media prior to hiring? How is that different from the background checks were already conducting?

Just last week it was reported that an Amazon employee was fired for reporting that her supervisor instructed her to “scour social media on applicants to determine race and gender. ” She did not feel this was the correct way to do this, and notified management. She was terminated. The ex-employee has since then filed a lawsuit against Amazon for wrongful termination among other things.

Many times we hear HR executives say that they do check social media on applicants and don’t give it too much thought as to the legality of it all. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), HR execs recruit candidates for specific jobs using social media, up from 56 percent in 2011 and 34 percent in 2008. Using this as a recruitment strategy is different than using it to determine employment, however.

The Right Way to Conduct Social Media Background Checks

This varies from state to state, however for the most part be aware of the following red flags that are allowed under FCRA compliance:

Racist, Sexist, or Discriminatory Behavior
Sexually Explicit Material
Threats or Acts of Violence
Potentially Illegal Activity

Developing a social media policy for your company is a great first step. This way everyone is on the same page when it comes to remaining fair to all applicants.

Never ask for passwords.

Include this as part of your background check policy and clearly state it for all applicants to see and agree to.

Use an outside agency.

Reputation management and workplace safety are just two of the three top reasons companies seek out social media background checks.

At eChatter we use software that is FCRA compliant. Results generated by our staff are in line with federal and state specific laws. However, we don’t stop there. Avoid a PR nightmare by monitoring social media once employees are hired, to protect employees from toxic behavior in the workplace. What starts at the office, sometimes spills into social media and vise versa.
Human Resource Social Media Hiring Scan

A Private Investigator’s View of Social Media Intelligence

I am pleased to share with you our first guest blog post. It is written by Larry Forletta, owner of Forletta Investigative/ Security Consulting. As a former DEA agent, Larry Forletta has established many resources in the United States and abroad.

https://fcisllc.com/

Social media investigations have changed the investigative landscape for private investigators.The forensics have been learned through a series of trial and error, utilizing some of the most popular social media platforms in order to gather essential evidence under the laws of collection. Those who work in this department are sometimes referred to as social media
vendors. However, not all social media forensics are the same and they certainly don’t produce the same results every time.

The effective use of social media has aided many investigations already. One investigation that comes to mind is an attempt to extort money from an individual involved with prostitution. By investigating through social media, the individual’s full identity (including name and base of
operations in the U.S.) was able to be identified. This investigative information was then provided to state authorities who were further able to identify the prostitution extortion individual.

It’s quite amazing what people continue to share on social media platforms. Despite the fact that there can be real consequences for what gets posted online, even if it might seem like fun and games, people continue to post sometimes incriminating and hard evidence that can be used against them. Americans spend more time using social media platforms than any other
internet activity, such as email. Most online evidence is compiled manually by an investigator who might screenshot or archive as needed. If something was sent or posted, perhaps even published, then it can be found and used accordingly.

Even when posts are deleted, they never really go away. Emails can be trashed, and accounts can be removed, yet the data and imprint of what has been put online may be able to be resurfaced with a little help. After all, a private investigator is only as good as their resources.

Our primary social media associate is eChatter, an online global source for social media researchers. They are spearheaded by their president, Kathy Doering, and specialize in a multitude of services including deep web searches and dark web searches. They are professional, communicative, and will get the answers that you need.

Every Picture Tells a Story

How to Use it in Your Next Investigation

More than 95 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day,(as of November 2019). People love to look at pictures in social media and they love to share them. Most Instagram photos are uploaded in the moment of experience, right from a mobile phone. This can be very telling when conducting an investigation around a missing person, a criminal, or even someone who you are trying to serve papers to. Paying attention to the details of the photo is especially helpful. Who are they with? What is in the background? Can you tell what the weather is like?

As an added feature, Instagram stories was launched in 2016 and allows users to upload photos and short videos that will disappear in 24 hours. Yes, like the social platform, SnapChat. Timing is everything and that is where continual monitoring of a site comes in handy.

Not only can Instagram be helpful in your online research, it is also a great place to promote your business. For now, let’s dig in deeper in this overlooked platform for the investigation world.

Starting with the name one chooses when creating a profile, users are encouraged to use any combination of numbers, capital letters, lowercase letters and underscores. Usernames cannot exceed 20 characters. So, as you can see knowing your POI’s full name may not be of help unless they use it publicly in their profile. A good rule of thumb is that most people reuse their usernames. Chances are if you know one, you will uncover other platforms with the same username in your search.

There are even username generators online that help new users create an username that “gets them noticed”. Spin xo is just one of many sites.

As you can see, finding a POI’s user name can be a challenge. Once you do some digging, and you find the profile, the following searching sites can be used to make digging in easier:

As with every other social media account, marketing dollars are a high priority. In order to get that revenue, the site must show ROI., which includes how may people engage. There are many tools to use for this purpose.

Don’t forget to check Instagram!

Why Is HR Scared of Social Media Background Checks?

We’ve talked to many HR professionals and Private Investigators who work with clients for employment purposes. What we hear most often is that they would love to include social and online research as part of their background check but are afraid to do so. They focus on what they hear in mainstream media – social media/online background checks are inviting a lawsuit, and companies don’t want to take a risk or be liable should a disgruntled candidate argue their case for discrimination, etc.

What many in the industry don’t know is that there are full on social media/online research services available, but those are not geared toward HR. In fact, there is a separate program designed specifically for pre-employment background checks.

This social/online research focuses on only negative content in relation to very specific topics, such as

Racist, Sexist, or Discriminatory Behavior
Sexually Explicit Material
Threats or Acts of Violence
Potentially Illegal Activity

It also complies with FCRA guidelines, which is critical. As HR professionals know, there are many aspects of an individual’s life that absolutely cannot be factored into the decision-making process, otherwise known as protected classes. Some examples include gender, marital status, religious affiliation, race, and parental status. It gets tricky because there are some factors that are state specific as far as not being allowed to be seen/considered as part of the hiring process. The laws can get further muddied for nationwide companies who are hiring outside of the state they are hiring employees in – at this point, which set of state specific laws apply?

Given all of the intricacies of pre-employment screening, it’s no wonder HR departments are very slow to adopt social media/online research as part of their decision-making process.

eChatter has developed a scan just for this industry/area of need. The pre-employment social/online research services take every factor into consideration to make sure that the clients we work for stay compliant on a federal and state level. Furthermore, we ensure that you never see what you shouldn’t see by redacting the information – the report turns up only relevant content that can be portrayed as negative and a detriment to the person’s employment with your company. When important content is identified, the report will only show those pieces of content. If nothing is found that falls into what can be legally obtained/considered when making hiring decisions, a “no pertinent information found” report is filed, meaning there is nothing of concern regarding the candidate.

With these protections in place, HR professionals can easily include social media and online content as part of their candidate screening. It’s as simple as filling out a form, providing as much information about an individual as in know – in the case of pre-employment scans, submitting the candidate’s resume is a great help – and letting eChatter take care of the rest, from conducting the research to keeping the layers of protection in place.

Want to know about using social/online content for pre-employment screening? Feel free to take a look at our website or send us an email for more information. We’re happy to answer any questions and show you how social/online research can be a valuable piece in the hiring process.